4 November 2014

ACTs Gov'ts Failed Same Sex Marriage Legislation - The Cost to Ratepayers!

| rommeldog56
Join the conversation
8

Report on 2CC new this morning was that the ACT Government’s failed same sex marriage legislation, which was, predictably, overturned by the Fed’s, cost $800K – including Legal cost of $500K. They didn’t cite where the figures came from though.

The ACT treasurer argued, as I recall at the time, that the legal costs were met by internal ACT Gov’t legal resources.

Lets hope that this sort of poor financial decision making and priority setting isn’t reflected in other more complex decisions by the ACT Government – like Light Rail for example. Yeah – dream on. It seems its easy to spend taxpayers money on financially doomed projects here!

Join the conversation

8
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Grail said :

It costs me time and money to attend the various protests that I attend too: I sponsor GetUp and SumOfUs to the tune of about a grand a year. Is that wasteful spending? Are there better things to spend my money on to get the same message into the ears of the people making policy decisions in party headquarters?

Is that wasteful spending Grail? The short answer is “Yes”. Please explain to me one useful achievement of GetUp and SumOfUs.

Queen_of_the_Bun said :

If only you had access to the interwebs – http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/samesex-marriage-costs-the-act-more-than-800000-20141103-11g4yz.html
But I guess you never check the Canberra Times website or see the dead tree version.

Geezz….that evidence by the ACT gov’t Lawyers at Estimates is pretty damming ! It appears that most commentators knew it was doomed to failure, except the ACT Gov’t Lawyers advising on it !

Ah, what the hell, it’s only $800K of ACT Ratepayers money blown – not to mention the hopes and aspirations of same sex couples being let down.

A $800K loss pails into insignificance to other stuff ups/cost to Ratepayers by poor decisions by the ACT Gov’t anyway, I suppose.

Queen_of_the_Bun9:21 pm 04 Nov 14

If only you had access to the interwebs – http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/samesex-marriage-costs-the-act-more-than-800000-20141103-11g4yz.html
But I guess you never check the Canberra Times website or see the dead tree version.

I know, if only they had a system under which you could chose the people who had control of ‘your’ contribution to governmetn funding.

Grail said :

It costs me time and money to attend the various protests that I attend too: I sponsor GetUp and SumOfUs to the tune of about a grand a year. Is that wasteful spending? Are there better things to spend my money on to get the same message into the ears of the people making policy decisions in party headquarters?

False equivalency is false.

Spend *your* money on whatever you like. Personally, I think giving it to those organisations is a total waste but what I think shouldn’t influence your spending. It should influence government spending of money that I’ve contributed to, though.

Grail said :

It costs me time and money to attend the various protests that I attend too: I sponsor GetUp and SumOfUs to the tune of about a grand a year. Is that wasteful spending? Are there better things to spend my money on to get the same message into the ears of the people making policy decisions in party headquarters?

I have absolutely no issue with individuals spending their $ as they see fit, if thats what you are saying.

But, the ACT Gov’t has wasted up to m$800 (some of that probably notionally) of Ratepayers money on Legislation that was so obviously doomed to failure. It was negligence.

Grail said :

It costs me time and money to attend the various protests that I attend too: I sponsor GetUp and SumOfUs to the tune of about a grand a year. Is that wasteful spending? Are there better things to spend my money on to get the same message into the ears of the people making policy decisions in party headquarters?

But you’re making decisions to spend your own money. The government spent taxpayers’ money in the pursuit of something that was not going to work. They had pro gay marriage advocates telling them that they didn’t have it right and that it wouldn’t survive a challenge.

It costs me time and money to attend the various protests that I attend too: I sponsor GetUp and SumOfUs to the tune of about a grand a year. Is that wasteful spending? Are there better things to spend my money on to get the same message into the ears of the people making policy decisions in party headquarters?

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.